Centaur of Vulci
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The Centaur of Vulci is a statue of the Etruscan Orientalising period, discovered in
Vulci Vulci or Volci ( Etruscan: ''Velch'' or ''Velx'', depending on the romanization used) was a rich Etruscan city in what is now northern Lazio, central Italy. As George Dennis wrote, "Vulci is a city whose very name... was scarcely remembered, b ...
near Etruscan
Viterbo Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history ...
, now in the collection of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
.


History

The statue was discovered in a private tomb in the
necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...
of Poggio
Maremma The Maremma (, ; from Latin , "maritime and) is a coastal area of western central Italy, bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea. It includes much of south-western Tuscany and part of northern Lazio. It was formerly mostly marshland, often malarial, bu ...
in Vulci Archaeological Park.


Description

This nenfro statue dates from 590-580 BC. It represents a
centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as bein ...
, a character from
Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...
with a human torso and a horse's body. The head, with an incised beard and hair falling into three braids on the upper legs, gives way to a brief chest and an equine body which lacks a tail. The arms are missing and also the legs below the knees; hands are visible on the hips. File:Centaure de Vulci 02.JPG File:Centaure de Vulci 03.JPG File:Centaure de Vulci 04.JPG File:Centaure de Vulci 05.JPG


References

{{reflist Etruscan mythology 6th-century BC sculptures Italian sculpture Etruscan sculptures Collections of the Villa Giulia Vulci Etruscan artefacts Statues in Italy